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Writing any list such as this is stressfu l. to say the least. I began researc hing this
project almost exactly five years before completing my first draft . and in that lime I no
doubt discussed my various and ever-changing ideas with hundred s of people. Dozens
more helped me in subtler ways. It lakes a village 10 raise a child . as the saying goes. and
it took the support and encouragement of everyone around me 10 help me create this
work . The impulse to therefore include in this section anyone and ever yone I' ve talked to
since March of 2003 is strong.
More stressfu l still. after narrowing down this list of contribu tors, is the task of
plac ing them into some sort of order. Whose name should be first? Will i offen d anyo ne
by placing the ir name last? By leaving them out altoge ther. even if by accident? To this
last question I can only say, I tried my best to include everyo ne, and if a name is nOI on
this list il is only due to my idiocy. and not because I did ne t appreciate what thai person
did for mc.
As for ranking names by importance, I have concluded that any such feat would
he self-defea ting. I cannot say. for the most part. that nne person helped me more than
another. Like the butterfly in Ray Bradbury' s "A Sound of Thunder: ' the removal of any
one perso n from the histor y of this project could result in catastro phe. The lists of peop le
that make up the rest of this section will therefore berandom. written down as they
occurred 10 me. with no differentiations made as to importance or usefulness .
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